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Mastery - by Robert Greene

Robert Greene (born May 14, 1959) is an American author known for his books on strategy, power and seduction. He has written five international bestsellers: The 48 Laws of Power, The Art of Seduction, The 33 Strategies of War, The 50th Law (with rapper 50 Cent) and Mastery. If you like reading I would highly recommend you all his books, because they are really interesting, will help you in life for sure and also many famous and powerful people have read them.

Mastery is his fifth book and explains how to become a leader in any given field by examining the lives and pathways to success of historical masters such as Mozart, Einstein and Darwin, as well as "living masters" which Greene interviewed—including Paul Graham, Freddie Roach, Santiago Calatrava, Temple Grandin, Yoky Matsuoka, V.S. Ramachandran, Teresita Fernandez, Cesar Rodriguez, and Daniel Everett.

“Everyone holds his fortune in his own hands, like a sculptor the raw material he will fashion into a figure. But it’s the >same with that type of artistic activity as with all others: We are merely born with the capability to do it. The skill to >mold the material into what we want must be learned and attentively cultivated.”

― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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That's the quote the book starts with, and it's very plausible. Everyone is a blacksmith of his own fortune and we must work on it ourselves.

It is said that you have to spend at least 10000 hours with something to master it.
Many of you may have already spent 10000 hours with something, but you have not mastered it. In school, you spend about 10000 hours until graduation. If you have a 40 hours a week at work, then you have already done it in 5 years. But have you mastered your work? Are you the Albert Einstein of your job or the Leonardo DaVinci. Probably not I guess.

How to find your calling?

The first chapter deals with "Finding your own way". Something like destiny. Begin to figure out. Find your calling.

Listen to your inner voice. The old masters like Einstein all had an inner voice on the basis of which they made their decisions. Listen to your inner voice!

As children we perceived them and did what felt right, but over time most of them became dependent on social pressure. Especially by their own parents. Do not do this, don't do that, it would be better if..... If this social pressure becomes too great, you can completely loose contact to what makes you unique as you slowly model your decisions and goals based on what others think you should do or what they want you to do.

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Lets take for example some child that is really good at playin guitar and practicing every day to become a famous guitarrist. And even if he is very talented, he is completely reminded by his parents that the chance to achieve that dream is a million to one, too risky and it would be much better and safer to become a doctor or to assume the company his parents are running.

So he does what his parents say, takes over the family business, but after a few years he loses interest and doesn't really follow with the development of the market and the company.
Originally he wanted to become a musician, but the pressure from his parents took away this dream, in which he originally saw his destiny. He ended up in a profession which he didn't really like and he can't do anything else or doesn't know what to do if he loses this job.

Which brings us back to the original question:

How do you find your calling?

There are actually three steps:

1. (Re)connect with your inner voice
2. Expand your concept of work (Do not separate work and life. If you make your destiny your profession, you'll never have to work again.)
3. See your carreer as a journey with many twists and turns and not as a straight line between you and your goal. As you progress in your career you picked up in step 2, you will find some areas in that field, that naturally attract you and others that repell you. This is where you start to adjust your course.

Finding your inner voice is the most crucial step here. Here are some steps to find it:

Return to your roots when you are struggeling to find yours. What fascinated you as a child? What fascinates you now? Unrestricted what others have said about it

Establish your own identity. We all possess an inner voice that wants to guide us. In childhood we all knew what we wanted and what felt good doing it. But social pressure has weekened it. Reconnect with that voice if you want to achieve mastery, because it is something you must do. It is the first and most crucial step to achieve mastery.

This is the end of the first part. The next part will be released in a few days and will deal with "Ideal Apprenticeship". Until then, find your inner voice to get a decisive step closer to your way to the Mastery.

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